Forex headlines for June 16, 2014:
- IMF lowers US 2014 growth forecast to 2.0% from 2.8%
- Ageing population reduces US potential GDP says Lagarde
- ECB likely to refrain from new measures for next few months – BBG sources
- June US Empire state manufacturing index 19.28 vs 15.0 exp
- US June NAHB housing market index 49 vs 47 expected
- Canadian May existing home sales +5.9% vs +2.7% prior
- May US industrial production 0.6% vs 0.5% exp m/m
- US April TIC data shows turnaround in flows
- Fed swears in Fischer, Powell and Brainard ahead of FOMC
- No bubble in housing market says Canadian finance minister
- Greenpeace bet against euro loses millions
- Eurogroup call for more public sector lay-offs in Greece
- Bank of England ‘puzzled’ by productivity gap
- WTI crude oil down 14-cents to $106.77
- Brent crude up 41-cents to $112.87
- Gold down $5 to $1271
- S&P 500 up 1.6 points to 1938
- CHF leads, AUD lags
The story in US trading was a generally softer US dollar despite some better economic indicators. The euro took a run at 1.3500 in European trading but stabilized around 1.3530 when NY rolled in. The headline that sent the pair to 1.3579 was the ECB taking a few months to evaluate. That shouldn’t be a real surprise but it was a queue for the bears to cover. last at 1.3572. Watch the downtrend from the May high — it comes in at 1.3581 on Tuesday.
USD/JPY has been wedging into a very tight range. Some large 101.95 options capped the pair ahead of the cut and it’s a very tight range around 101.85 at the moment.
Similar story in cable. Heart rates climbed on the break above 1.7000 in Asia but it didn’t last and the pair is chopping around 1.6981.
In terms of volatility, USD/CAD was the star of the show and it’s not often you get to say that. The pair was on the march higher up to 1.0880 in the early going but the securities flows data was a reason to sell and the pair sank to 1.0835, the lowest since June 2. A bounce was snuffed out and we close near the lows of the day.
AUD/USD also caught a bid from the bottom as the US dollar was largely weaker. The pair climbed up to 0.9402 from 0.9374. NZD/USD dead around 0.8678.
Gold finally took a breather and paints a minor reversal on the chart in a fall down to $1272 from $1284.